Problem of parents for standing in queues for purchasing
textbooks will no longer be a problem for them as they can order books online
from the Balbharati portal.

Parents can get delivery of textbooks at their home or get textbooks
from the Balbharati depots across the state. Balbharati publishes Maharashtra
state syllabus textbooks for classes 1 to 12. Nearly 13 crore textbooks have
been published for the academic year 2016-17.

Yogesh Limaye, head, Balbharati's computer section said that
they are trying to digitize as they have uploaded pdf versions of textbooks and
decided to sell them online.

Limaye stated that earlier vendors had to come to the book
depots, get the challan for books, go to a bank and pay the amount, submit the
receipt and then get an invoice after which they would get the exact weight of
their books. Based on this, they had to call a vehicle. But now all this can be
done online. Balbharati has book depots in Pune, Mumbai, Panvel, Goregaon,
Nashik, Amravati, Nagpur, Latur, Kolhapur and Aurangabad.

He said that books will be delivered through postal
department and they charge nominal postal charges. Textbook costs between Rs 10
to rs 90 and now they will see how the buyers respond to this.

Balbharati's director Chandramani Borkar said that apart
from these, they produce teachers' handbooks, workbooks and extra reading
material. These will be sold online after gauging the response of the customers
buying the textbook.

Last year Balbharati had printed 16 crore textbooks and this
year its 13 crore. This is not due to decrease in the sale of textbooks online.

Printing depends upon introduction of new books as students
buy second-hand texts from seniors. This year, only Class 6 textbooks have been
changed as per the revised curriculum whereas two years ago, three classes had
new curricula, so the number of textbooks had gone higher.